Todd Rundgren: A Wizard, A Bigger Star

It looks like this is the year of Todd. First, the “Wizard,
a True Star” released an unexpected album inspired by blues legend Robert
Johnson, provocatively titled Todd Rundgren's
Johnson, on the occasion of the
mythic blues figure's 100th birthday—turning the sparse tunes of dark
despair into howling electric blues like the sort that motored the British
Invasion bands. And he also just
announced a string of intimate UK dates, where he’s eschewing his futuristic
tendencies and will do a greatest hits set, billed as “the greatest hits tour his
fans have been waiting to see for years.”

And yes, that does mean he will
return to his winsome power pop and emo-before-emo songs from Nazz and the much
beloved Something/Anything.

Finally, the
Grammy Museum in conjunction with American Express will be hosting an Evening
With Todd Rundgren on July 18. While Rundgren is more a show, not tell kind of
guy—as witnessed by his impressive track behind the scenes producing albums for Patti Smith,
Cheap Trick, Hall and Oates, XTC, Grand Funk Railroad, and Meat Loaf’s
mutli-platinum Bat Out of Hell—he has consented to discourse on his long
career, interviewed by the Grammy Foundation’s Scott Goldman. Even better, Rundgren
will perform a selection of hits and take questions from the audience. So
grab a ticket and get in line to ask Rundgren whatever happened to Moogy
Klingman, and what was he thinking when he consented to front the resurrection
of The Cars.

Doors
open at 7:30 pm. American Express presale tickets are $25 and can be purchased online
by American Express card members starting Wednesday, June 22, at noon. Public on sale is Monday, July 11, at noon. American Express is the exclusive payment method for presale tickets. All
proceeds benefit the GRAMMY Museum. For more information, please call 213.765.6803 or visit the museum's website.

Jaan Uhelszki was one of the founding editors at Detroit’s legendary Creem magazine. Since that time, her work has appeared in USA Today, Uncut, Rolling Stone, Spin, NME, Relix, and Guitar World. She is the only journalist to have ever performed in full makeup with Kiss. Luckily she only had to put…